Pursuit of the Truth

The finger brought forth destruction. It tore through Harmonious Morus Alba’s wings to reveal the Vast Expanse and moved through the fog of resentment Old Man Extermination had created to appear in front of Su Ming.

It contained destruction and a supreme power that could crush all wills.

Su Ming… did not turn his head back. He lifted his right hand; he had already cut the River of Forgetfulness.

His body shuddered at that moment, and he coughed up blood, but he simply gritted his teeth and stood firmly in his spot, allowing the destruction behind him to submerge him. Determination shone in his eyes. He wanted to personally see the River of Forgetfulness cut and the people of Ninth Summit return to their new world once the severed River of Forgetfulness could no longer flow in reverse.

That was why he could not let the finger behind him move past him. He could not let any accident happen to the people of Ninth Summit.

While Su Ming persevered, Di Tian shuddered while in Yin Death Vortex. After coughing up blood, he continued making sure that the life matrix was complete. However, there were already many cracks on it.

Di Tian’s eyes were bloodshot. He let out a roar that came from his soul. His body then withered so that he could gather all his life force into the life matrix.

Yet… Su Ming’s power was not enough for him to last. His wish could not be fulfilled. The next moment, his legs were unable to withstand the destructive power and shattered. Di Tian’s legs shattered as well.

When Su Ming’s body was about to be destroyed by the destructive power as well, a six-colored wind appeared beside him and surrounded him, helping him bear the attack while withstanding the enormous force, and in the end, managed to pull him away from the finger.

The six-colored wind was Arid Triad!

Without Su Ming blocking its path, the finger touched the River of Forgetfulness right when it was severed and the vortex was about to disintegrate…

It shattered…

Su Ming saw his eldest senior brother turn into ash at that instant. His second senior brother seemed to sigh softly. He looked at Su Ming, and there was a faint smile at the corners of his lips, but soon, his head turned into nothingness when his body shattered and disappeared into the wind.

Su Ming saw Hu Zi roar, Yu Xuan staring at him, the tears at the corners of Cang Lan’s eyes, and Xu Hui pursing her lips before she closed her eyes in anguish.

And the sight of his elder, Chang He, Nan Gong Hen, and all the other people’s faces being replaced by Xuan Zang’s finger. When the River of Forgetfulness was shattered, the vortex disappeared… and everything was reduced to only a memory.

It was as if the freezing wind and the biting chill had turned into a shrill mourning song and words of resentment on paper without Su Ming’s knowledge. In his dream, he heard the desolate notes of a flute from the distance, and the amazing moments in the passage of time turned into eternity, into the leaves of autumn. With a desolate air and loneliness, they fell before Su Ming’s suddenly dull eyes.

The autumn leaves covered Su Ming’s eyes. It was as if the mountains and rivers from his memories had reached their end without a single sound. When the leaves fell, Su Ming’s line of sight was cleared. His dull and lifeless eyes were revealed, and they seemed to contain one single truth—that in the end, all mountains and rivers had to be eternally lonely. They could only be desolate existences in the passage of time, just like snow.

Time seemed to have come to a stop before Su Ming’s eyes at that moment. A teardrop that looked like blood fell from the corner of his eye at some unknown point in time. That teardrop slid down his cheek and fell on his foot, then rolled down to the empty galaxy. No one could say whether it would land on a flower named Ninth Summit if reincarnation existed.

Xuan Zang lifted his finger a little, and then, it started to slowly head towards Su Ming with the intent to kill again. Su Ming was his offering, and he would always first taste his offerings before harvesting each Harmonious Morus Alba.

The six-colored wind beside Su Ming turned into Arid Triad. He stood next to him and watched the finger approach him. A smile full of anguish appeared at the corners of his lips, but the look of someone being freed of their burdens was more prominent on his face.

“Su Ming, I was wrong. Everything you said before was real…

“But I don’t regret this. I devoured Harmonious Morus Alba and became the master of this universe… I also became an existence who is both a cultivator and a Harmonious Morus Alba!

“I don’t know how many years I’ve lived. I thought I’ve already forgotten the past, but I still remember that tree… I still remember by family and friends of the past… Su Ming, I’ve become Harmonious Morus Alba. This is my disaster, but it’s not known as Harmonious Morus Alba’s disaster. It has the name… Arid Triad’s disaster!

“This is my disaster, and if I can have a disaster with my name, then I, Arid Triad… am satisfied with my life!

“But you are different. You’ve come to understand a hint of Boundless Dao’s Realm. You have a greater future ahead of you. Leave this place. If you complete your Dao in the future… remember to take revenge for me, then, at the very least, I wouldn’t have wasted the time to get to know you!”

Arid Triad turned his head to look at Su Ming while speaking with a smile. There was determination along with dignity in his expression.

“I’ve always thought that if we were both born in the same era, we would have become close friends.” Arid Triad lifted his right hand and patted Su Ming. Immediately, Su Ming was pushed backwards… When Arid Triad turned around, powerful fighting spirit burned in his eyes while he charged at Xuan Zang’s finger coming towards him.

From the distance, the finger looked like a ball of flames… and Arid Triad was like a moth!

Either this was a moth charging towards the fire and its own death, or it was the flames burning the moth. The persistence of that figure… shone with the most brilliant light in all of Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos at that moment!

‘Death isn’t frightening. I’ve already completed my Dao, so why should I be afraid of Death?!

‘My death will verify my Dao. My death isn’t brought by the heavens who have come to destroy me, but my pursuit of Dao which I will do in an even more resplendent fashion!’

“Arid Triad’s disaster… Arid Triad’s disaster. I, Arid Triad, shall laugh for being able to go through this disaster!”

A long string of laughter echoed in space and landed in Su Ming’s ears. It sounded fleeting, like the waters in the river of time. He raised his hand in that water, watched it disappear and listened to the rustling as it slipped through his fingertips. It was as if his memories were sinking as time changed, and his heart was buried in reality. His dreams… filled with sadness while he counted all the tears that he had shed.

Su Ming laughed. He laughed long and hard, and as he laughed, tears of blood fell from his eyes. His laughter was shrill and forlorn, echoing through the entire world and universe. His laughter was filled with madness, along with an even stronger sense of determination!

“Harmonious Morus Alba, as long as I, Su Ming, am alive, if I don’t destroy all your people and all your kind, I will not be able to die in peace!

“Extermination, if I don’t make you suffer the pain I went through today by one thousand fold, if I don’t make you die a death by a thousand cuts, crush your bones to ashes, extract your soul and devour you for ten thousand years… I, Su Ming, will not see light ever again!

“Dark Dawn, Saint Defier, two camps, 360 Expanse Cosmoses… You don’t even have to wait for the disaster to bury you, for what you did to me, I will take revenge… by destroying all of you!

“And Xuan Zang… I originally only wanted to live and wait for the day so that I can go searching for the ones I sent to the other world.

“But you… since you stopped me from doing so, you will be the target of my Possession. Even if it will end my life, I will Possess you, because only by Possessing you will I be able to open the Abyss Gate and search for their tracks in the passage of time. And then… I will resurrect them one by one!”

Su Ming’s hair did not turn white as in the secrets of the universe. It was still purple, but the grief spreading out from it became an eternal part of Su Ming.

It was as heavy as the color of the universe.

Arid Triad Expanse Cosmos started collapsing before Su Ming at that moment. It was because of the space above pressing down on them. The planets roared and shattered, and the living on them died one after another, reduced to nothing.

The figure of Arid Triad was burning, because the flames from Xuan Zang’s finger had lit him up!

Sky and earth, heaven and the universe, space and galaxy… It was as if two huge palms had come into contact to crush all signs of all True Worlds as well as all the existing lives, including… the powerful warriors from the previous aeons who thought they could be safe from the disaster. They had long since noticed that the disaster was completely different from before, but they could not escape from it and could only descend into madness when they died. As they were destroyed, they let out shrill roars that were drowned out by all the rumbles.

Su Ming turned around. He no longer had any legs. There was only a sleeve left where his left arm was supposed to be as well, but from his body came a purple darkness that exuded extreme madness and evil!

His aura was full of the purple darkness. It surrounded his body and became his legs as well as his left hand. Their skin tone was completely different from the rest of his body.

With killing intent burning in his eyes and his crazed heart, he body turned into a long arc. At the instant Arid Triad collapsed, he stepped into Dark Dawn and Saint Defier’s camps.

Since the 360 Expanse Cosmoses were certain that Su Ming had attacked them before… he might as well truly attack them. He would fight against the disaster and snatch the lives it was supposed to harvest, because those people… had stopped Su Ming from doing what he wanted with their resentment. Then, just like what the secret of the universe predetermined, if Su Ming was bound to be alone… they would be bound to die!

He stepped into Dark Dawn and Saint Defier and turned into a gust of purple wind in the space between the sky and earth while the galaxy was being flattened by the world above. There was a figure in the wind, and wherever it went, all Expanse Cosmoses and races were destroyed!

While Su Ming killed, he did so with persistence. Only the Expanse Cosmoses of the Heavenly Foxes and the Bear Charters were spared, despite the fact that Yan Pei had died.

When Su Ming walked past the Heavenly Foxes’ Expanse Cosmos, Zi Ruo lifted her head and stared at the sky where his figure was covered in purple. Her gaze was profound, and as she stared at him, Su Ming moved away, not lingering around. He did not trouble the Heavenly Foxes, but besides them, the Bear Charters… and the Expanse Cosmos in Saint Defier where the bald crane had once laid beside a lake and stared at an old woman for one hundred years, every other place suffered a bloody storm.

Behind Su Ming, the Expanse Cosmoses that were now void of life welcomed the sky pressing down on them and were reduced to nothingness… Then, with a step forward, Su Ming charged above and shot through space. He entered the fourth wing’s Expanse Cosmos and headed towards the region where Old Man Extermination resided with burning killing intent.

Wherever Su Ming walked, the galaxy withered like the bark of the past and was crushed, turning transparent when the clear water of the future was added to it. No matter what the color was, when a bowl of ink was poured into it, it would dye the whole world… It would never be able to return to how it had been in the beginning.